1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to couplers for hydraulic hoses, and in particular, female couplers such as are used to connect hydraulic lines to operate an implement attached to or being towed by a work vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous female couplers are currently available for coupling to and uncoupling from a pressurized or non-pressurized male coupler. Such couplers are used extensively in hydraulic hook-ups, such as are used in agricultural and industrial vehicles. Some examples of such couplers are taught by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,303,098 (Shindelar); 4,549,577 (Kugler); and 4,582,295 (Kugler et al.). These references all teach lever-operated female couplers, that is, female couplers in which a lever must be moved to allow insertion or removal of the male coupler. This has the disadvantage that the coupler requires two hands for operation, one to operate the lever and the other to insert or remove the male coupler from the female coupler.
Typically, the fluid power industry overcomes this problem by providing a push-pull/connect-disconnect female coupler which does not incorporate the lever-actuated cam, e.g., as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,845 (Brady). However, this type of coupler has the disadvantage that it no longer provides the controlled low effort disconnection of a lever disconnect structure, because the hydraulic fluid in the coupler might simply blow the male member out of the female coupler if only a low effort were required.
Finally, while some of these references, e.g., Shindelar, teach structures in which a lever can operate either of two adjacent female couplers alternately, none teach a mechanism which can decouple multiple couplers simultaneously. Couplers frequently are paired, so that it would be advantageous to be able to decouple them simultaneously.